


death, lacking

by ShinjiShazaki



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29730681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinjiShazaki/pseuds/ShinjiShazaki
Summary: It was a strange thing, receiving word that the man who had renounced all his names had died.(A small examination on death and the feelings of those who hear of it.)
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	death, lacking

It was a strange thing, receiving word that the man who had renounced all his names had died. Edelgard had grown used to addressing him by his birth name, Khalid, and by his title as king of Almyra. She had grown used to his teasing, his attempts at charm in his letters discussing the futures of their nations. She had even grown used to him asking about Byleth and how they were settling into their marriage.

She found she had not grown used to the idea of him dying. Dying to poison from a bitter old member of the alliance, at that.

Edelgard showed Byleth the letter, and then Hubert. Byleth looked at it with raised brows, some shock in her eyes. Hubert had made a soft perturbed sound. She could see the consternation in his eyes, a silent set of curses at having to start over with a new ruler.

“Are we to go to Almyra?” he asked. “We can be certain that the country will be in the midst of a conflict by the time we arrive.”

“No,” Edelgard said at length, voice soft. “We would not be welcome in the first place.”

“That’s true,” Byleth admitted.

Edelgard dismissed them, returning to paperwork. The endless piles of it, never close to being finished with how much Fódlan had to change. Her mind wandered, though, making her wonder if Khalid had delegated his work or if he had taken direct responsibility.

She realized she’d never asked. She realized she never could, and for the rest of the day she could not focus on a single word.

————

Byleth caught her mood that night and politely said nothing. When she nearly landed a blow on Edelgard’s face during their morning spar the day after, she led her out of the sparring yard and to the palace gardens.

“Are you sad?” she asked, so direct as always with how tact and emotion were new to her.

“No,” Edelgard said easily.

Byleth thought. “Happy?”

She smiled slightly. “Why would I be _happy_?”

“Sometimes people are happy when people they hate die,” she replied. “I was…I guess that was happy. When the woman who killed my father died.” She thought further. “Kind of happy, maybe. It happened really fast and I didn’t even do anything.”

“Do you regret not landing the blow yourself?” Edelgard asked.

“A little. I don’t know if it’d ever make me feel better.” She leaned against Edelgard. “I don’t think it’ll ever be okay with me. Dad being gone because of her.”

Edelgard took her hand to hold to her chest. “I understand. And you’re not wrong. Killing Thales didn’t make me feel any better about losing my family the way I did.”

“So you’re not sad,” Byleth said, “and you’re not happy. What’s making you distracted?”

She inhaled slowly and sighed softly. “I feel nothing. No sorrow, no joy, no satisfaction. Khalid was…an enemy in wartime, certainly. An absolute bother at the academy. He teased me about everything, including you. You should’ve heard him go on and on about you teaching me for the dance competition, saying he’d never seen me look so pleased.”

“You were pretty happy. Even I knew that.”

“That aside,” Edelgard said, squeezing her hand, “I truly feel nothing. And I am thrown off at the idea of him suddenly not existing. I dislike that we will have to reestablish connections to Almyra when he was a fair and openminded king. I feel sorry for the allies who must have loved him.

“But,” she said, “Khalid meant nothing to me. I did not hate him. I did not like him. But he is gone, and a fragment of the world is gone with him. I will grow used to it.” She lifted Byleth’s hand to kiss her fingers. “May I ask for your patience as I do?”

“Of course,” Byleth said, and the tenderness in her voice helped to put Edelgard at ease.

**Author's Note:**

> Had some stuff happen IRL. Kind of needed to review my own feelings through the lens of a character.
> 
> As always, you can catch me [on twitter](https://twitter.com/shinjishazaki).


End file.
